Gas fired barbecue grills continue to increase in popularity due to their convenience of operation, relatively instant availability for use in cooking, substantially even heat distribution and cooking of food, ease of clean-up and versatility to cook numerous varieties of foods. Gas grills typically include a metal grid as a cooking surface and use porous lava rocks disposed beneath the cooking grid to radiate heat upward to the cooking surface. This configuration allows grease and juices released from the cooking food to drip through the cooking grid and onto the lava rocks, eventually resulting in grease accumulation and flame flare-ups, or uncontrollable flames. Metal bars or metal grates may also be placed beneath the cooking surface in an attempt to collect and vaporize grease and other drippings. While this may be partially successful, unvaporized grease must still be dealt with, typically through an evacuation hole or through draining the grease into a hanging can or grease cup.
Furthermore, such cooking grids are limited in use. Cooking that requires a planar surface, such as frying, requires a user to place an additional cooking tool such as a pan on top of the cooking grid. Additionally, smaller food items, such as vegetables, must be placed in an additional container, such as a basket or wrapped in foil or the like, to prevent those smaller food items products from falling through the cooking grid and onto the lava rocks.
Although it is common for full size gas grills to be located on a movable cart with the grill body centrally located toward the top center of the cart at approximately waist height, the mobility of these gas grills is somewhat limited. This arrangement places the predominant weight of the grill on top of the cart, resulting in a somewhat top-heavy and unstable configuration. Furthermore, the mobility of these grills is limited due to the weight and cumbersomeness of the cart assembly and the grill, commonly fixedly attached to each other. These designs result in gas grills on carts that do allow for movement of the grill within a relatively limited area, such as a deck or patio.
An additional drawback of such grills is that they typically require assembly by the purchaser. Often, multiple tools and several hours of labor are required to construct the grill and cart assembly. The purchaser must also follow lengthy and sometimes complicated instructions in order to complete the assembly of these grills.
While smaller, more readily portable grills are also popular for tailgating, camping, and even for use in residences with limited space, such as apartments, these grills are typically small in size and often heated by charcoal. Although these grills are small and intended to be portable, the charcoal burning grills require a user to also transport charcoal, lighter fluid, and matches. Charcoal not only requires the transport of items additional to the grill, but charcoal is slower than gas to heat up, is messy to clean up and requires substantial cooling off time before packing up.
These smaller sized, portable grills are also made in a gas-cooking configuration. However, portable gas grills are also beset with their own set of problems. Similar to the portable charcoal grills described above, portable gas grills are often small in size, resulting in insufficient size cooking surfaces, messy accumulation of draining juices and grease, and may be difficult to level in order to provide a flat cooking surface. Furthermore, portable grills are typically restricted to relatively shorter cooking times due to a limited supply of heat source, either a limited gas supply or a limited capacity to hold charcoal.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.